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London Lights
From the time of Nelson's death at Trafalgar to the opening of the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London spread like a disease across the fields of Middlesex and Surrey. This title describes the men and women who, through their genius and courage, luck and misfortune, put London at the cutting edge of cultural change.
- GenresHistoryNonfictionLondon
400 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2008
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About the author
James Hamilton
634 books17 followersJames Hamilton is a curator, writer and lecturer, who entered the University of Manchester to read Mechanical Engineering, and emerged with a degree in History of Art.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 14, 2024
Lots of details but felt like a network analysis, snowballing from one place to another.
James Parkinson won the Leverian Museum, with its fish and monkey room.
Would love to read memoirs of Charles Babbage, William Jerden, Cyrus Redding, and Recollections by Rev. John Richardson
James Parkinson won the Leverian Museum, with its fish and monkey room.
Would love to read memoirs of Charles Babbage, William Jerden, Cyrus Redding, and Recollections by Rev. John Richardson
March 7, 2010
As someone who loves both history and London, this was a well chosen gift that I looked forward to reading, until I started.
The book looks at a group of interconnected 'lights' of the London scene in the first half of the 19th century - artists, scientists, architects and men of letters and considers their legacy. But Hamilton deliberately shies away from the already well-documented lives of the big players to focus on the B-list names who history has largely forgotten, mostly with good reason.
Take John Martin, a reasonable painter who proposed sewerage schemes that were never built or John Pye, a distinguished engraver or Henry Maudsley, a pioneering and entrepreneurial engineer - each has a story to tell, just not usually a very interesting story, and one told in a dense and detailed way by Hamilton's laboured prose.
The book is at its best when describing pioneering developments that gripped society, such as a lovely chapter on the early balloon flights by 'aeronauts' who were flying to Germany from London in the 1820s! Or the buzz caused by the rapid developments in photography, and the Great Exhibition of 1851. But this is offset by painful chapters on the history of the Royal Society, and the Society of Antiquaries, of egotistical and tiresome characters who had dinners, attended parties and wrote letters with other similarly dull, but worthy, people. But they all played a part in making London what it is today, and for that I am grateful.
The book looks at a group of interconnected 'lights' of the London scene in the first half of the 19th century - artists, scientists, architects and men of letters and considers their legacy. But Hamilton deliberately shies away from the already well-documented lives of the big players to focus on the B-list names who history has largely forgotten, mostly with good reason.
Take John Martin, a reasonable painter who proposed sewerage schemes that were never built or John Pye, a distinguished engraver or Henry Maudsley, a pioneering and entrepreneurial engineer - each has a story to tell, just not usually a very interesting story, and one told in a dense and detailed way by Hamilton's laboured prose.
The book is at its best when describing pioneering developments that gripped society, such as a lovely chapter on the early balloon flights by 'aeronauts' who were flying to Germany from London in the 1820s! Or the buzz caused by the rapid developments in photography, and the Great Exhibition of 1851. But this is offset by painful chapters on the history of the Royal Society, and the Society of Antiquaries, of egotistical and tiresome characters who had dinners, attended parties and wrote letters with other similarly dull, but worthy, people. But they all played a part in making London what it is today, and for that I am grateful.
July 20, 2015
There is a very interesting book hidden in muck between these covers. The best sections make interesting connections and reveal those webs of interaction that seem often accompany genius. Recognizing who knew whom, or the scientific currents surrounding an artist like Turner, places achievements in a broader and more meaningful context. But some sections just pile up odd facts, with no apparent structure or even common theme. There are pages broken into 'paragraphs' by means of indentation, but with no sense that the supposed paragraph coheres, advances a thesis, or is truly distinct from that which precedes or follows it. This makes for some weary reading.
Hamilton is at his best when he is in the midst of a set-piece, where the event gives him structure. Were that the consistent level, I would probably kick in another star; if I were rating for the worst, well I wouldn't have finished, so no stars or rating at all.
Hamilton is at his best when he is in the midst of a set-piece, where the event gives him structure. Were that the consistent level, I would probably kick in another star; if I were rating for the worst, well I wouldn't have finished, so no stars or rating at all.
June 12, 2017
Not the liveliest text, but a valuable catalogue of the literally incredible number of brilliant people working in London in the first half of the nineteenth century. It also fleshes out general histories of the period.
January 11, 2025
Hamilton would make for a great dinner guest or as a companion to a museum or show. However I found this story discombobulated and rambling at times. Fantastic period and well researched.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews